Every Bánh Chưng Season, Vietnam’s Lá Dong Capital Comes Alive With Harvest Frenzy

For about 600 years until now, generations of Tràng Cát villagers have grown up amongst emerald fields of dong. Dong (Stachyphrynium placentarium) is a grass-like plant that’s closely related to ginger. The leaves are bright green, wide, and durable, and thus are very suitable to wrap food in traditional dishes, especially bánh chưng. In Tràng Cát, dong grows thick in yards, alongside old brick walls and village paths where farmers and children tread every day to go to work and school.

According to several village household’s genealogical documents, right when the community was first established in the 16th–17th century, locals were already clearing land to cultivate dong. Back then, only the prettiest, most flawless leaves were used to make bánh chưng to offer to emperors. Initially, the plant was only grown at home, but gradually, land plots not fertile enough for other cash drops were all turned to dong fields. Today, the village’s 500 households all cultivate this special leaf.

About 30 hectares of dong fields now span everywhere in the commune. Irrigated by the Đáy River, Kim An’s sandy soil is particularly nourishing to dong, thus Tràng Cát’s leaves are nationally famous for their broadness, waxy surfaces, and bright colors. When wrapped and cooked, bánh chưng here carries an appealing shade of green and gentle leafy aroma. It’s not a coincidence that, even though dong can grow anywhere, many bánh chưng makers still seek out Tràng Cat leaves.
Leaves are harvested year-round in the village, but the volume only really balloons when Tết nears. From the 10th to 25th day of the last lunar month, the entire village enters crunch mode for the busiest time of the year. Harvesters meander in between tall dong shoots to pick the best leaves. Then, they carefully slice off right above the node to prevent tearing or breaking the stalk, while ensuring that the plant could bud out new leaves after Tết.
During peak periods, each household could gather up to 10,000 leaves a day. Once cut off, they are washed and tied into bundles of 100, before being separated into tiers depending on purposes. Smaller leaves are reserved for bánh tét while medium-sized ones are for bánh chưng wrapped using molds. Only the biggest, prettiest leaves are used for traditional hand-wrapped bánh chưng. Each bundle could fetch VND60,000–250,000 depending on the tier.

To dong farmers like Phạm Thị Tuyết, growing this leaf is both more familiar and less strenuous than rice or other cash crops. Dong can be harvested all year, not just for Tết, yielding 3–4 batches. The plant is also quite low-maintenance: just water regularly and the leaves would pop out again. Her working schedule during Tết seasons often starts at 7am and ends at 5pm with around three hours of lunch break. “Before Tết, every person in the family must work together to cut and pack the leaves,” Tuyết explains.

“Dong is very easy-going and accommodating. They’ll sprout new leaves when one is cut, so we can do this year round. A few previous storms knocked them down, but they still lived and gave us new leaves,” Tâm, a leaf harvester, shares.

When the leaves are gathered, farmers focus on sorting and packing: one person cuts, one person counts, one person washes, and one person categorizes. I left the village, but couldn’t stop thinking about the incredible vigor of the dong plant — it won’t stop growing, no matter how many times its leaves were cut off.

Written by Xuân Phương. Photos by Xuân Phương.